Chapter 8

"Long way home. . ." Kat muttered at her reflection as she pulled her coat over her blouse and then pulled her pants up, thankful that whatever means Vaius had used to clean her clothes had managed to get out the stink of the water she'd fallen into days earlier. Everything smelled faintly of vanilla and thyme, adding to the crisp feeling of the freshly washed clothes. The shower had done her nerves some good but Bree's words still bugged her. "That's not fair."

"Life seldom is." The tiefling said as he crossed one leg over the other at the knee, watching Kat fuss with her hair a bit before he tossed her a brush. "But look at it this way, it could always be worse. You're in good company and for her many vices, she wouldn't endanger the ship- or its occupants- without good reason."

"Yeah, I know." Kat caught the brush without thinking about it, still messing with her bangs. "But it still seems like indentured servitude-"

"Welllllllll" The man's tone pitched up several notches like nails on a piece of slate. "You did almost set Nyx on fire."

"I don't remember that!" Kat shot back. "I. . . don't remember much of anything, honestly. . ." She sighed. "Whatever. I'm not gonna help her raid someone who's done her no wrong, though. That's not. . . That's just not right." He went silent for a long moment as he watched her brush her hair back and tie it into a pony tail. Not terribly flattering to her features but it was practical and the way her bangs framed her grey eyes didn't annoy her nearly as much as they usually did. She pulled some errant hair out of the brush and glanced to him. When he shrugged she followed suit.

"She doesn't feel the need to tell me much aside from 'mend that, stop the bleeding there, what's for dinner tonight Vaius?" He leaned back and set his elbow on the vanity behind him. "And it's not like she eats it anyway! I mean all the effort-"

"Hey, um. . . Can I ask you something?"

"Something else you mean?"

Kat rolled her eyes. "Yeah. Why do you work with her?"

Vaius's eyes considered her for a moment. A subtle smirk pulled at his lips before he spoke. "Let's say we're-"

"Allies of convenience?"

"Pff. We have similar goals- I want the good life denied to me by my heritage and she. . . well. She's an ambitious one, that woman. You can see it in her eyes, she'll take what she wants from the cosmos if she has to fake a smile or rip the heavens in two to make it happen." He smiled a little more at some memory, sighing. "She's a good sort. Bit scary if you get on her bad side, though."

Kathrine swallowed, recalling the keen gaze she'd seen in the woman during their first meeting. It was as though anything and everything someone was could be unraveled under that gaze. It was unnerving but she'd never seen the woman truly mad at anyone. "Is that why you're always here?" She motioned around his room. The only one she'd found on the ship with a 'shower' which he was kind enough to let her use.

"Hm? Oh pff. What's out there that I haven't seen here, hm?" He said as he tapped his temple. "There's nothing in life I can't experience between the covers of a good book."

"Huh. . . Well um. . ." Maybe she'd been wrong about him in the first place- it was his harritage most people judged him by, just like she had. But if his greatest crime was locking himself in his room with a stack of books, how could she have faulted him for that? She swallowed. "I uh. . . I'd like to apologize, mister Vaius."

"Hm? Whatever for?"

"I uh. . . I judged you without knowing anything about you and. . . I'm sorry."

The man simply stared at her for a long moment, his brow knitting in thoughtful consideration before a soft, almost paternal smile warmed his face. When he spoke again his voice was slightly warmer than she'd ever known it. "Well thank you, that means a lot coming from you." He nodded. "Apology accepted. But you should get top side before the cat thinks you're going to squirm your way out from under his paw."

"Yeah, I suppose so, huh?" Kathrine handed the hair brush back and straightened out her coat. "How do I look?"

"Vain and self serving. You'll fit right in." He smiled.

Kat had to smile. "Yeah, thanks." She left a few moments later checking the spell component pouches sewn into her coat to make sure everything she needed was in place. She'd gone to great lengths to ensure her reagents were within easy reach and had spent the better part of the morning preparing abjurations to protect herself and whomever might be going along with this nebulous raid. Feeling the reassuring weight of her spellbook hanging from the chain on her belt set her mind at ease, it was a measure of control over her surroundings she'd been desperately searching for even if not consciously. It was that measure of control that kept her from flinching when she got to the top of the ladder that lead to the main deck to see Nyx and half a dozen of the strange lanky men staring at one another.

His body was coiled low, shoulders and wings slung back as if to pounce on the nearest man but none of them looked particularly bothered by the display of the massive sphinx. She was just about to say something when he launched backward into the thick grey clouds at lightning speed. The men followed his movement with their gaze still seemingly unconcerned even as he fell back further into the clouds.

A shiv of pristine ivory shattered the thick grey sky for just a second when Nyx spread his wings before being swallowed by a cloud. Kat ran to the rail to look for him, images of his tumbling down to an unknown depth fluttered in her mind. But in the next second he swooped down the deck raking the back of his claws against the wood nearest the men who still looked on with mild disinterest. He brushed past them so fast that their loose flowing clothes fluttered in his trailing wind. None of them flinched.

The sign of warriors who were exceptionally disciplined. They were going to be helping on this raid. . . By choice? Maybe. Kat looked at them uncertainly. Bree'd said she'd met them on the plane of Limbo and they'd let her leave in peace if she escorted them to the Astral so that must've meant. . . Limbo. . . Limbo. Why was that name so familiar?

"Good of you to join us, morsel." A deep rumbling voice pulled her attention to the side. Nyx was sitting hunched down on the edge of the rail like a gargoyle with his fore paws wrapped around the wood and his rear legs cocked back as if ready to jump at a moment's notice. His wings were just folding against his body as he looked her up and down with a reassuring nod. "What spells have you prepared, mage?"

"Prieste-"

"Symantics. Your spells, please."

Kat blinked at his tone. It was the same sort of tone her father had used when he was trying to train her to become a Purple Dragon- before he learned she was about as likely to last in a sword fight like he was in a running contest with her. "Uh. . . Abjurations- protections; Shield, Dispels, protection wards primarily. A few evocations too."

"Evocations. . . Fireball?"

She frowned. "No. Darkness, Gust of Wind. . . stuff like that."

His eyes searched her for a silent moment as though measuring her. A flicker deep within their depths of some unknown emotion lit his feline eyes leading to a slight smile that exposed his canines. "Very good, priestess. Join the others and we'll get started planning. . ."

"Uhm. . . Others?"

He nodded to the men who'd turned their attention to her. She swallowed.

"O- Okay."

The lanky men with their yellow eyes didn't look away from her as she approached nor did they respond to her coy wave even when she was only a few feet away. "Um. . . Hi there?"

They just stared at her.

Kat frowned. "Alright. . . my name's Kathrine Stoneriver, I'm a priestess in service to Chauntea-. . . oh." Heat welled up on her cheeks as a thought struck her. "I uh. . . I'm sorry about last night. I was a little. . ."

"Yes, a 'little' is an understatement. Moving on." Nyx plodded around Kat brushing her leg with his tail in passing. He reached back into his wild flowing mane producing a small map which he laid out in front of them, staking it down with a claw. Kat knelt down to hold the other corner flat and the man with the brown skin held down the other corner. It was the map she'd seen on the table in Bree's quarters depicting the flat plane with small circles. Nyx reached forward with his other paw drawing a claw across the plane as he began to explain the situation. "This is our meeting place, we're here to sell a piece of equipment 'liberated' from the clutches of an unpleasant lich. . ." His gaze flicked to Kat. "Now that we're all up to date, here's what we'll do.

"Our traders are going to be likely waiting in ambush- more greed than sense if you ask me. The most likely place is going to be hidden behind these mountains here. It's the only ground on the entire plane but it attracts fierce lightning storms. We won't have time to spend burning candle light or making fancy defensive maneuvers. We'll disable their ships before we meet with the client and then we'll be off before they know what's going on." His claw traced a semi circle around the rear of the mountain tapping on each circle as he went. "The cloud cover is thickest here and something in the ground attracts the lightning so they'll be a ways off expecting us to pull up near the piece of ground."

"We're not going to. . ." Kat looked to him. "Are we? The ship could go up like tinder-"

"We are." He shrugged that awkward shrug. "We-"

"C- Can I ask? What've these people done that they deserve to die-"

"We're not going to kill them." His gaze turned to the men with the yellow eyes. "No one dies today. Disable them but leave them alive."

The man closest to her simply stared at the sphinx. His gaunt face held no readable emotion but somehow Kat could imagine he was silently challenging the decision. Eventually he gave a slight nod of understanding. Nyx returned the nod and glanced at Kat. She nodded and opened her mouth to speak.

"You and the Captain will make the meeting, I'll take care of their uninvited guests with ours." His rumbling voice trailed off for just a moment before he tapped his claw on the map to indicate their path of travel. "We'll approach from the south and drop off our fighters as we pass. Then the ship will come around a wide loop and settle over here so you can conduct your business. Once finished, come get us and we'll be off. Questions?"

"Yeah- um. . . How do you know they're going to be there in the first place?"

He looked at her as though it was a foregone conclusion. "The captain has a hunch."

"A hunch. . ."

"A hunch." He nodded. "Anything else?"

"What if you guys get into trouble, how will we-"

"I'm sure we can take care of ourselves, but your concern is appreciated." Nyx looked at her with a subtle smirk pulling at his lips. Perhaps his way of saying that if everything went to pot, he'd be the only one coming back. She really couldn't blame him.

"Okay. . . Do we know if they have any special kinds of magic I should be aware of?"

"They're likely divine spell casters, though I doubt they have any access to anything more destructive than a divine hammer or some such." With cool indifference he unstaked his claw from the map and began rolling it up. "We'll be gone before that becomes an issue."

"You don't sound so sure."

Nyx perked a brow. "And since when have you become an expert on the mindset of extra planar beings?"

"Erh- sorry." A flash of lightning shattered the grey clouds a few feet from the right of the ship sending their shadows across the main deck in long strokes that vanished as quickly as they formed. Despite herself, Kat ducked instinctively letting out a soft yelp, expecting at any second to see magic flying towards or around her. She'd have been dead, she knew it. She was supposed to be in control of her concentration and instead she was cowering like a complete wuss. Someone was going to get killed at this rate if things went bad. . .

Nyx looked at her skeptically as though he was reading her thoughts and agreeing completely. His chest inflated slightly and he sighed it out. "Perhaps you should stay with the ship."

"No, no, it- I'll be okay." Kat forced herself upright and straightened out her coat, trying to ignore the side long glances of the yellow eyed men. "I'm not going to flake out or anything."

He shook his head as he turned towards the rear cabin already starting to head back at a lazy pace. "We shall see." His tail swished back and forth slowly. "Make your preparations, we haven't much time." A flicker of lightning deep in the clouds burst and died off just as a human sized hour glass blinked into view in front of the cabin. It was an illusion, Kat was sure of it, depicting a half empty top half draining quickly into the bottom. At the rate it was going, they had maybe fifteen minutes to finish their preparations.

Kathrine glanced to the men who stared right back at her for a full beat before seeming to loose interest and look to one another. Abruptly the six of them turned away from Kat and started toward the hatch leaving her alone in the middle of the deck as a flash of lightning lit the entire ship only a foot away. It was so close she could smell the ozone and could feel her hair bristling with the static electricity. She yelped again and ran for the rear cabin at full speed.

Some War Wizard you would've made.

# # # #

Bree casually tousled Nyx's hair with her free hand as her other finished tightening the leather strap around her thigh that held a small dagger scabbard. Much to Kat's surprise, the massive sphinx didn't object or even seem to acknowledge the gesture while he set the ambush map on the table. Something in their playful demeanor had changed slightly and it was readable even to someone normally as blind as Kathrine, they'd changed to a kind of serious professionalism that she'd only seen in soldiers who were 'on duty' at all times. Unlike those soldiers, however, they were comfortable enough with one another that nothing need really be said; a simple touch here and a glance there was as much that passed between them as they finished their battle preparations.

Nyx carried a simple amulet hanging from his neck that depicted a Draconic rune circle similar to the circles she'd seen in the ice plane. The ornamentation looked slightly out of place on his broad chest but it was clear without even reading the smaller runes that it was a protective amulet of considerable power. It made sense that he didn't wear it often but the choice was probably one of aesthetics rather than any practical concern he might be attacked on the ship.

Similarly, Bree's fashions hadn't changed at all with the exception of the simple dagger. Her hair was still a carefully teased mess resting on her shoulders and her lips, ever so slightly pouted were still smiling that genuine warmth of someone infinitely secure in her position in the multi-verse. There was tension in her shoulders but it was more like anticipation instead of the fear Kat had first thought it to be.

Kat on the other hand was suited for just about anything she could be. Her coat was fully stocked with reagents, her brother's longsword hung at her belt with reassuring heft ready at a moment's notice and she had the two most important wands within easy reach 'just incase'. She had prayed for and received Chauntea's blessings even considering her company and their 'mission', it was perhaps a minor thing but something that helped put her mind at ease. If She wouldn't object to what they were about to do, maybe it wasn't so bad after all.

Bree's gloved hand paused on Nyx's upper shoulder right above his wing for a moment longer causing Kat to shift a little. Maybe she'd been wrong about her assessment of things. Maybe she had no idea at all what their relationship was. It wasn't really her business anyway. . . Kat cleared her throat to get their attention.

"Hm?"

"Should we get the. . .uh. . .thing. . .?"

"Fear not, I picked it out when you were getting ready."

"Okay. . . um. . . What uh. . . what is it you want me doing when we get there?"

"Do what you do best, miss Stoneriver." She smiled a warm grin. "Be beautiful and live passionately."

Kat furrowed her brow. "Yeah but-"

"We'll be fine, dear." A soft chirping sound followed her words as the hour glass on the inside of the cabin emptied its contents into the bottom par of the glass. The woman stood to her full height before pulling her collar up and wiping her hair a bit to frame her face with wavy curtains of her glistening black. She looked to Kat with a soft smile. "Let the show begin, hm?"